In 2000, the NIH Osteoporosis Prevention, Diagnosis, and Therapy Consensus Development Conference identified bone accrual during childhood as "perhaps the most important determinant of life-long skeletal health". The 2004 Surgeon General's Report on Bone Health and Osteoporosis reiterated the importance of optimal peak bone mass for lifelong skeletal health, as well as the potential negative effects of genetic abnormalities, nutritional deficiencies, chronic disease, and lack of exercise on bone accrual during growth. Importantly, both the Surgeon General's Report and the NIH Consensus Statement called for research to identify strategies to maximize bone health in children, to address the impact of chronic diseases on bone accrual, and to determine the effects of bone therapies on the growing skeleton. In recent years, there have been dramatic increases in translational bone research with significant advances in genetics, osteoimmunology, bone biomechanics, and studies of molecular signaling and nuclear receptors in bone differentiation and development. The 4th International Conference on Children's Bone Health (ICCBH4) will take place in June 2007 in Montreal, Canada. The objectives of the ICCBH4 meeting are (1) to examine the latest advances in basic, translational and clinical research relating to bone development and children's bone health, (2) to allow trainees and junior faculty to present their work to an international audience, and (3) to have attendees provide substantial input and public comment on the International Society for Clinical Densitometry evidence-based guidelines for the assessment of bone density in children. The Scientific Program Committee has developed a program that includes state-of-art presentations, workshops, and sessions on secondary osteoporosis, nutrition, genetics, fracture epidemiology, bone biopsies, and novel bone therapies in children. This R13 proposal seeks funding to support travel expenses for 20 trainees and junior investigators. Recipients for this award will be selected based on the quality of their first-author abstracts submitted to the ICCBH4 review panel, as well as a letter of support from their research mentor, verifying their training / junior faculty status. Participation in the meeting by ICCBH4 award recipients will promote their development as independent investigators in basic, translation and clinical research related to bone health in children, and will foster interdisciplinary and collaborative research in this rapidly evolving field of medicine. The 2004 Surgeon General's Report on Bone Health identified bone accrual during childhood as a critical determinant of lifelong skeletal health and called for research to maximize bone accrual in children. This proposal requests funds to support travel expenses for 20 trainees and junior investigators to attend the 4th International Conference on Children's Bone Health; this support will promote their development as independent investigators in basic, translation and clinical research related to bone health in children. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]